The Police Command in Lagos State says it has arrested two suspects over rituals in the Ijanikin area of the state.
Command’s spokesman, Chike Oti, said in a statement on Tuesday in Lagos that a third suspect was, however, lynched by a mob before the police got to the scene.
Oti said the suspects were allegedly found with a decomposing human body under the Cele Nicer Bridge, Ijanikin.
He said the police had received information that a woman (name withheld), was found inside a tunnel under the bridge with a decomposing human body.
“The discovery attracted an irate mob, which nearly lynched her save for the quick intervention of policemen drafted from Ijanikin Divisional Police headquarters to the scene.
“The rescue team thereafter searched the tunnel and arrested a suspect believed to be an accomplice of the female suspects.
“The third suspect, who escaped from the tunnel to avoid being arrested, was caught by an irate mob who set him ablaze,” Oti said.
The police spokesman said the Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, had directed the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Ijanikin to cordon off the scene to ensure that the remains were not tampered with for forensic examination.
“The experts are expected at the scene today (Aug. 28) for scientific examination of the corpse, the tunnel and other exhibits found therein,” he said.
Oti quoted Edgal as describing the incident as regrettable as it occurred in spite of the various town hall meetings he had held to sensitise communities in the state to the evil of jungle justice.
“They killed one of the suspects who might have been very useful in the ongoing investigation instead of handing him over to the police,” Edgal said.
He warned that anybody found to have indulged in such an act in the future would be arrested and charged for murder to serve as a deterrent to others.
